In the News

From Beyonce to Britain, here’s why you were searching for meaning on Dictionary.com this week. FUPA Vogue got the Beyonce treatment this week, and so did the Dictionary.com trending words list. The singer got frank about the changes her body has undergone as she’s aged and carried babies, even praising her own FUPA. If you’re not familiar with the acronym, you’re not alone. Searches for …

LeBron James was as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve and so were football fans. So, what effect did that have on the Dictionary.com trending words of the week? Let’s take a look! Inviolability An announcement by Pope Francis sent one word soaring 441% this week: inviolability. The pontiff issued a statement condemning the use of the death penalty, “because it is an attack …

From Final Jeopardy to toothbrushes made from panda’s favorite snack, the trending words on dictionary.com took us all around the world and back again. Get ready, get set, go word-crazy! Outercourse An attempt by Brock Turner’s lawyer to have his sexual assault conviction overturned—based on a claim that Turner only intended to have outercourse with his victim—sent hundreds of people to the dictionary (and to …

From Fortnite to Tyler, the Creator, there were plenty of reasons to learn new words this week. So let’s dive in, shall we? The Circle Game It’s a game teenagers play every day, but searches for the circle game rose 1,094% for a decidedly more troubling reason this week. Four officers in the Jasper (Alabama) Police Department were suspended for making hand gestures in a …

Kylie Jenner. The Bachelorette. Wiz Khalifa. This week’s edition of trending words is absolutely star-studded. So let’s dive in! Self-made Is Kylie Jenner a self-made billionaire? That’s how Forbes labelled her this week, and it left plenty of folks curious about just what it means to be self-made. How curious? Searches rose 864,100% on Wednesday! The answer to the query, of course, is that self-made …

We pored over the data this week, and we got a good look at what words you learned from the news. Whether it was a presidential grammar mistake or an HBO show host’s foray into teen speak, here’s what made folks curious. Ontogeny and phylogeny Paris Hilton tried to stump the internet this week, asking Twitter users to tell her something she didn’t know. It …

There were plenty of calls for civility this week, but do folks really know what it means? The word was one of the top trending searches on Dictionary.com, but it was far from the only term to spark interest! Eighty-six The ouster of Press Secretary Sarah Sanders from the Red Hen, an eatery in Lexington, Virginia boosted searches for the meaning of eighty-six by 6,100%! …

From families being separated at the border, to a prominent Republican jumping ship from his party, to Beyonce and Jay-Z dropping new music, take a look at how the news affected searches on Dictionary.com this week. Concentration camp, illegal alien, cage, la familia, tender age Debates over the separation of children from their parents at the US border have dominated headlines and social media, and …

Whether it’s CNN host Jake Tapper tweeting or Canadian officials making statements to the press, the news tends to make an impact on what people search in the dictionary. Here’s a peek at the words that had folks guessing this week! Ad hominem Tensions between the United States and our northern neighbor, Canada, are at an all-time high this week, with President Donald Trump and …

From the president’s Twitter account to a horse with an unusual name, searches for the meaning of words took folks into some unusual areas of Dictionary.com this week. Pardon President Donald Trump’s assertion that he can pardon himself didn’t just have the Twitterverse talking. It also sent searches for the meaning of pardon up 328% this week. We can’t say whether or not a president …